Reading the Church of England’s Response to the Covid-19 Crisis: The Diverging Views of Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical Clergy

Leslie J Francis,Andrew Village

doi:10.1017/s1740355321000267

Abstract

AbstractWithin the one Church, the Church of England holds together in tension two distinctive streams, one rooted in the Catholic tradition (shaping Anglo-Catholic clergy) and one rooted in the Reformed tradition (shaping Evangelical clergy). Comparing the responses of 263 Anglo-Catholic clergy with the responses of 140 Evangelical clergy (all engaged in full-time stipendiary parish ministry) to the Coronavirus, Church & You Survey, the present analyses tested the thesis that these two groups would read the Church of England’s response to the Covid-19 crisis differently. The data demonstrated that, although Anglo-Catholic clergy were as willing as Evangelical clergy to embrace the digital age to assist with pastoral care, they were significantly less enthusiastic about the provision of online worship, about the closure of churches, and about the notion of virtual rather than geographical communities. The centrality of sacred space (parish church) and local place (parish system) remain more important in the Catholic tradition than in the Reformed tradition. As a consequence, Anglo-Catholic clergy have felt more disadvantaged and marginalized by the Church of England’s response to the Covid-19 crisis.

Highlights

Amid the complex landscape of divergent Christian traditions, the Church of England emerged from the turbulent political, theological, and ecclesial postReformation years with a highly distinctive DNA
The data showed that Anglo-Catholic clergy and Evangelical clergy read the responses of the government and the National Health Service in the same light
While 47% of Evangelical clergy regarded the Church as having responded well to the crisis, the proportion fell to 29% among the Anglo-Catholic clergy

Summary

Introduction

Amid the complex landscape of divergent Christian traditions, the Church of England emerged from the turbulent political, theological, and ecclesial postReformation years with a highly distinctive DNA. This highly distinctive DNA resulted from a Church that had both embraced the Reformed tradition and yet had not fully forsaken its Catholic roots. It was this highly distinctive DNA that allowed the Church of England in the early nineteenth century to give birth to. Penhale properly captured the mood in the title for his book preparing for the 1988 Lambeth Conference, Catholics in Crisis.

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Conclusion